Tom Petty's Florida
Lyrical Threads Vol. 3: more Gators on the Lawn
'Gainesville,' which includes a Clearwater citation in lyrics
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
Clearwater, FL 33756
https://maps.app.goo.gl/NhswdrtJDa1uYtN98
The city of Clearwater is named in "Gainesville," a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song recorded in 1998 yet not released until the 2018 posthumous box set "An American Treasure." Here is that lyric:
"Bird dog in the high grass
Dancers all along the wall
We got down to Clearwater
You're okay anywhere you fall."
You can watch the nostalgic video for it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6NxbUzNM5U
Photo courtesy of Visit St. Pete/Clearwater
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
Orlando, FL 32801
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ATCcfx1wPV1TipKe7
Orlando (and Atlanta) is named in "Southern Accents," a Tom Petty song on the 1985 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album of the same name. While you'd be hard-pressed to find an orange grove in or near Orlando today, here is that lyric:
"Now that drunk tank in Atlanta's
Just a motel room to me
Think I might go work Orlando
If them orange groves don't freeze
I got my own way of workin'
But everything is run,
with a southern accent
Where I come from"
Here you can listen to a live performance at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center in Gainesville by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on their 30th anniversary tour in 2006:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGA7akHkk4E
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
'Casa Dega,' song based on spiritualist town of Cassadaga
'Southern Accents,' which includes an Orlando citation in lyrics
'U.S. 41,' north-to-south road that is title of a 2010 TPATH blues song
Cassadaga, FL 32706
https://maps.app.goo.gl/WViuqZasTqtUAppi6
Cassadaga is a spiritualist community dating back to 1894, that today is called by some the "Psychic Capital of the World." The town became the basis for the Heartbreakers song "Casa Dega," although spelled differently. Here is part of that lyric:
"That she said to me as she holds my hand
And reads the lines of a stranger
Yeah and she knows my name
yeah she knows my plan
In the past in the present and for the future
Oh honey now I think I'm starting to believe the things that I've heard
Cause tonight in Casa Dega I hang on every word"
Here you can watch a video of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing it on New Year's Eve 1978 in Santa Monica, Calif.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcdFjuV4bNc
Photo by Shawn Murphy
'U.S. 41,' north-to-south road that is title of a 2010 TPATH blues song
'U.S. 41,' north-to-south road that is title of a 2010 TPATH blues song
12771 FL-45, Archer, FL 32618
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1nkC6p1S7xdyZ1Uc7
A convenience store and gas station, located in the town of Archer, is at the crossroads of State Route 24 and U.S. 41, a north-to-south road that became a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' song, "U.S. 41," on their 2010 album "Mojo," an old-style blues song that would have made Archer resident Bo Diddley, and Tom Petty friend, proud. Here is part of that lyric:
"Well, all my life's been workin'
Out the door and gone
Got to make that overtime
Keep us movin' on
I need a drink of water
Get out of the sun
Burnin' up to make that wage
On U.S. 41
That's right, U.S. 41"
To listen to the song, go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q9cHaA9UM0
Photo by Shawn Murphy
'King’s Highway,' west-to-east road that is title of a 1991 TPATH song
Punta Gorda, FL 33980 to Arcadia, FL 34266
https://maps.app.goo.gl/rRuXaYcS5RZzEAwX7
King's Highway is an actual roadway on the southern Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida. A stretch of state route 769, which runs from Charlotte Harbor to a rural crossroads 18 miles northeast of there, is named Kings Highway, which is the title of a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' song from the 1991 album "Into the Great Wide Open." The lyrics envision a utopian place down the road where the narrator wishes to bring his girl. Part of the lyric reads: "When the time gets right
I'm gonna pick you up
And take you far away
From trouble my love
Under a big old sky
Out in a field of green
There's gotta be something
Left for us to believe
Oh, I await the day
Good fortune comes our way
And we'll ride down the King's Highway"
You can watch a video of a live performance by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers here: https://youtu.be/OdqDeBzqlP0
Photo courtesy of AARoads
'Crystal River,' a waterway leading to the Gulf Coast, a manatee haven
Crystal River, FL 34423
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9EnFhL6i3XKHTEXW8
Crystal River, a small city located on Florida's Gulf Coast, is home to crystal-clear, spring-fed rivers and estuaries that attract manatees to its temperate waters in what is today Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge and Crystal River Preserve State Park.
"Crystal River," a song from Mudcrutch's 2008 self-titled album, includes this lyric:
"Crystal river
Got a woman on the other side...
And nothin' can touch me here
On crystal river...
She's sleeping
Sleeping by the water side
She's sleeping
Out there on that bank...
And nothin' can touch me here...
On crystal river"
You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_hj69VsiIM
Photo courtesy of Forbes magazine and Wake and Wander Media
'Melinda,' cites Clay County, home to the Melinda in the song lyrics
Clay County, Florida (county seat is Green Cove Springs, FL 32043)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yiDfWvB5Fy62frWz9
Green Cove Springs is the government seat for Clay County. The county name was worked into "Melinda," a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' song, which can be found in the "Live Anthology" box set from 2009. The song, written by Benmont Tench and Tom Petty, includes the following passage:
“I would give the moon and sun
Just to see Melinda
The earth and all the sky
To be there with Melinda
And I just don't care, what you got to say
Cause I'm getting up in the morning
And I'm going to see Melinda
Yes I'm through with Clay County
You never done a thing for me”
In Keystone Heights, a town in southern Clay County, there is located the Keystone Beach Historic Pavilion where in 1964 or 1965 a concert was held by the Sundowners, a band from Gainesville in Alachua County, approximately 25 miles southwest of the pavilion. On bass guitar and sometimes on vocals in the Sundowners was Tom Petty. Keith Harben, Tom's childhood friend, told me that at the time Tom was seeing a girl named Melinda from here in Keystone Heights, Clay County, a fact that may have been inspiration for a lyrical thread in the "Melinda" song that crafts a mysterious story.
Here you can listen to that live recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmQMiIJ8yVA
Photo courtesy of Clay County
'The Bus to Tampa Bay,' cites Tampa as the narrator's destination
Tampa, FL 33602
https://maps.app.goo.gl/VQg2PUyBpHpeBwEt5
This city is named in "The Bus To Tampa Bay," a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song recorded in 2011 yet not released until the 2018 posthumous box set "An American Treasure." Here is that lyric:
"Beneath the shade the hired hands are talking
Down the highway a lonely woman walking
The prisoner of a dream that she's been stuck in
And I'm waiting for the bus to Tampa Bay"
You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9DgstlfaY
Photo courtesy of Visit Tampa Bay
'The Bus to Tampa Bay,' cites the Everglades and its Invaders
'The Bus to Tampa Bay,' cites St. Augustine via Osceola lyrics
Everglades National Park, Florida
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Doi4rZSTfTrJHnt58
The Everglades are cited in "The Bus To Tampa Bay," a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song recorded in 2011 yet not released until the 2018 posthumous box set "An American Treasure."
The mention of the Everglades comes in conjunction with the warrior Osceola, who during the Second Seminole War helped lead the resistance against the U.S. government, which was trying to take away Native land in Florida and forcibly remove them to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Here is that lyric:
"There's a map of Osceola and his Raiders
Fighting off the Everglades Invaders
He burnt them down, he left them for the gators
And there's maybe something better down the road"
You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9DgstlfaY
In Everglades National Park, and elsewhere in Florida, you are bound to see an alligator. After all, as Tom Petty sang, "every other day I got a gator on my lawn," which was an outtake from the studio sessions for the 1981 album "Hard Promises." Here is where you can listen to that song, "Gator On the Lawn":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZABzLa2WRf4
Photo courtesy of Conservancy of Southwest Florida
'The Bus to Tampa Bay,' cites St. Augustine via Osceola lyrics
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
'The Bus to Tampa Bay,' cites St. Augustine via Osceola lyrics
St. Augustine, FL 32084
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a2z99hZnFL3b8VAV9
Osceola is named in "The Bus To Tampa Bay," a Tom Petty song recorded in 2011 yet not released until the 2018 posthumous box set "An American Treasure." During the Second Seminole War, the warrior Osceola helped lead the resistance against the U.S. government, which was trying to take away Native land in Florida and forcibly remove them to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. It was in St. Augustine where Osceola was deceived by the pretext of a truce and peace talks, only to be arrested and imprisoned here. Here is that lyric:
"There's a map of Osceola and his Raiders
Fighting off the Everglades Invaders
He burnt them down, he left them for the gators
And there's maybe something better down the road"
You can listen to the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW9DgstlfaY
To learn more about Osceola, go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osceola
Photo courtesy of Visit Florida
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
Lake City, FL 32025
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7Dg9DNQZJKjPTZxr9
Lake City is named in "The Wrong Thing To Do," a song from Mudcrutch's 2008 self-titled album. Here is that lyric:
"Well I was flying half mast
On the 4th of July
In a bar in Lake City
With a western tie
And I was thinkin' hard
About changin' my name
And headed for Miami
When the daylight came"
Here you can watch a video of Mudcrutch performing this song in 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGEcDnaIG4
Note that the 1970s lineup of Mudcrutch (which included future Heartbreakers Tom Petty and Mike Campbell) is reported to have played in a country-western bar (name and address unknown to me) in Lake City in the early 1970s. Mudcrutch is also reported to have played in Lake City, according to Benmont Tench (who joined Mudcrutch and then the Heartbreakers), who recalled seeing them “at the Astro Lounge in Lake City in 1971 or ’72” and he “got to sit in with and then join” (name and address unknown to me).
Photo courtesy of Visit Natural North Florida
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' names Miami for possible morning escape
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
'The Wrong Thing To Do,' cites a bar in Lake City on the 4th of July
Miami, FL 33132
https://maps.app.goo.gl/P6RUZJq37tRW6Jb5A
The city of Miami is named in "The Wrong Thing To Do," a song from Mudcrutch's 2008 self-titled album. Here is that lyric:
"Well I was flying half mast
On the 4th of July
In a bar in Lake City
With a western tie
And I was thinkin' hard
About changin' my name
And headed for Miami
When the daylight came"
Here you can watch a video of Mudcrutch performing this song in 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmGEcDnaIG4
Photo courtesy of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
The Speaker Wars' 'Trader's South' about Gainesville's seedy topless club
2212 SW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32608
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5YoFwWsSJRzrfvkV6
During the summer of 1969, the Epics had a residency at a smoke-filled topless club, Trader’s South (2212 SW 13th St, Gainesville). Soon the band’s name morphed into Mudcrutch, during an era when other bands were picking different-sounding names. Tom Petty and Tom Leadon, and for a while Jim Lenahan, made up the lasting core of Mudcrutch.
Road Turkey, which included future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch, also played at Trader’s South. (In this three-piece band were also Marty Jourard and Steve Soar). Lynch was still a high school student when he played here as Road Turkey’s drummer.
“I worked there as a boy,” Lynch said during an interview promoting the self-titled debut album by The Speaker Wars, a band with Stan Lynch and Jon Christopher Davis at its core, which was released in 2025. “I had to put on a fake moustache because I wasn’t old enough to play there.”
Lynch said he had three birthdays during his high school years at Trader’s South, which he said “was a dive, all the way.”
As a teenager, he’d play in Road Turkey at Trader’s South until 2 a.m. on a school night, then go to school drowsy the next morning. (Lynch graduated in the class of 1973 from the the P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, 1200 SW 6th St. in Gainesville).
“I can’t even tell you how bad the place was, but it was a job,” Lynch said.
To watch this interview, go to the following link and click play on the video embedded into the story. You will see Lynch talking about Trader’s South, the place and the song, from time stamp 19:37 until 22:46.
One of the songs on The Speaker Wars’ album is about Trader’s South, where its customers are referenced in the lyrics this way:
“Drifters and grifters, preachers and punks
Handsome young cowboys, sad married drunks”
It is suitably titled “Trader’s South.”
Trader’s South opened in 1968 as a bar that featured topless dancers and live music. It was otherwise known as Trader Tom’s, named after the colorful owner, Tom Henderson, who once told Petty to “turn the music down.” The Speaker Wars’ “Trader’s South” pays homage to Tom Henderson, about whom Lynch has fun with its lyrics in the first verse:
“Tom was an outlaw a criminal man
He won Trader’s South on a high poker hand
When his dancers needed music that's how l came to be
Working his shithole back in ’73”
Later in the song there is a hint we should hoist our whiskey glasses as we sing along with its referent lyric: “Here’s to that bastard, Old Trader Tom.”
Tom Henderson died in 2019 at the age of 89. Joey Henderson, Tom’s youngest son, told a reporter from The Gainesville Sun that “the bar business was in his blood,” and that “when he went to work and from work, he carried a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun openly, to protect his money bags” because “that was his character.”
Following Henderson’s death, Marty Jourard posted to Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group his administers: “He was so funny. He used beer metaphors: ‘Hey, Road Turkey, I need a band next Friday, just calling to see if you boys are on tap.”
To learn more about Henderson’s life and his bar businesses in Gainesville, read Kevin Brockway’s article from The Gainesville Sun, found here:
If a paywall prevents you from reading it, and you don’t subscribe to the newspaper, this article can also be found in this post to Gainesville Rock History by Jourard:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/159046777481720/posts/2276061812446862/
Trader’s South closed in 2006. The building was eventually leveled. As of December 2024, there was nothing but a vacant lot here.
The last line of the song is, “I bought the sign.” In actuality, Stan Lynch did buy the large yellow Trader’s South sign that advertised the business from its parking lot. That sign now resides in a barn adjacent to Stan Lynch’s house near Melrose, Fla., 20 miles east of Gainesville. In the interview promoting the album, Lynch said about the sign, “ It’s really my diploma because that’s when I graduated high school.”
To listen to “Trader’s South” by The Speaker Wars, you can stream it on South Cloud here:
https://soundcloud.com/thespeakerwars-music?id=1103228860
Better yet, purchase the album. See the Merch tab at the band’s website, found here:
https://www.thespeakerwars.com/
And to see Stan Lynch sing this song with The Speaker Wars on Heartwood Soundstage at the 2024 Tom Petty Weekend in Gainesville, find that video uploaded by Glenn Richards to Gainesville Rock History, a Facebook group, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/159046777481720/posts/8618032534916393/
Photo courtesy of The Gainesville Sun